The Super Saturday Short-Lived Showcase

Sorry for the delay...

noreply@blogger.com (NoelCT) — Sun, 20 Mar 2016 02:08:00 +0000

Hey everybody, Noel here. I wanted to apologize to everyone for how sporadic our posts have become with increasingly long delays, as well as explain a bit about what's going on. No, the blog isn't dead, and nor are we abandoning our watch-through of Starman.

For the last 20 years, my mother and I have been taking care of my disable sister at home, with me working full time as her care attendant. Sadly, things have gotten to a point where we need to sell the house. This week, we just completed the long and draining process of moving my sister into a group care home (oof, the separation anxiety), and now I'm sorting through stuff and packing in prep for my own pending move while also looking for a new job for the first time in nearly two decades. With this bottleneck of my free time, all my projects have slowed to a crawl, some to a complete halt, but once things settle, we can get everything rolling up again soon. This site especially is one I have much fondness for and I don't want to leave everyone hanging. I just have a lot of things I need to sort out of the way first.

Thanks everybody for your patience and for continuing to read along. And to Tony for sticking with me. We should have a new post going up in just the next week or two as Tony's already finished his portion. After that, there probably will be some more delays, but within the next month or two, I should finally have a firm enough footing on the next chapter of my life that I can maintain a schedule again.

Starman, episode 8 "Peregrine"

noreply@blogger.com (NoelCT) — Sun, 07 Feb 2016 21:15:00 +0000

Hey, look! A bonus double post this weekend!

Again wandering woodland roads with no money for a hotel, Starman and Scott come across a group of people gathered around an injured falcon, all of whom are too worried about getting attacked to help it. Starman conjures up his animal soothing abilities and gently guides the bird onto his hand, and follows directions to a nearby veterinary clinic run by the harried Casey Flynn, who set the place up to care for local livestock, but is struggling to break even on just a handful of pets. As soon as Starman arrives, all the other animals freak at the sight of the wild falcon on his hand, but he uses a Jedi hand swipe to silence them, impressing Casey enough that she offers him a job helping out around the place. As for Scott, he gets the joyous task of being a babysitter to her toddler son, Joey, who finds no shortage of foodstuffs to hurl at the teen.
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Starman, episode 7 "One for the Road"

noreply@blogger.com (NoelCT) — Sun, 07 Feb 2016 01:45:00 +0000

At a high school in the fictional suburbs of San Leon, California, Starman is nervous about letting Scott go in alone to register as a student, but Scott reveals dancing around missing records and faking info is something he has some experience with.
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Starman, episode 6 "Secrets"

noreply@blogger.com (NoelCT) — Mon, 25 Jan 2016 01:05:00 +0000

Apologies for the extended break over the holidays. We're back!

In the Skid Row slums of Los Angeles, Starman and Scott are settling in for the night at a cheap motel, seemingly unaware that Fox is closing in outside, with a strike force (well, two other guys) arming themselves with tranq guns as they move in on both the door and window. Fox's men crash in, but just missed the heroes, who snuck away on the back of a laundry truck. Wandering after spending a rough night on the streets, the two catch a news flash about a woman who escaped from a nearby psychiatric hospital: Jenny Hayden.
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Starman, episode 5 "Best Buddies"

noreply@blogger.com (NoelCT) — Tue, 08 Dec 2015 03:14:00 +0000

On a bus to Phoenix, Starman shoots awake from a nightmare, and Scott explains to him the mysterious mechanics of dreams. They're headed to a photo assignment Liz lined up for "Paul Forrester" so they can get some extra cash, and arriving at their hotel, Starman is recognized by the friendly staff, who also kindly hand him a $260 bill for a bar tab left behind by Paul during his last stay. While in the lobby, Jake Lawton, a howling man in a business suit, rushes over and wraps Starman in a huge hug. Seems he and Paul worked in Vietnam together, he as a journalist, Paul as a photographer. They haven't seen each other in a decade, and Paul apparently never responded to his letters, but Jake buys him a drink and invites him home for dinner that night, then excuses himself as he has a business meeting with a Japanese client for his current importing business.
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Starman, episode 4 "Blue Lights"

noreply@blogger.com (NoelCT) — Sun, 06 Dec 2015 01:30:00 +0000

In a small rural town in southern California, the inhabitants delight in how clockwork the routine has become as waitress Laurie signs off each evening to meet up with Charlie Ewing, a cheerful if insecure deputy sheriff who's often down on himself, even as he's hoping for a promotion. It's because of this that he's been unwilling to fully settle down with Laurie, much to her chagrin.
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Starman, episode 3 "Fatal Flaw"

noreply@blogger.com (NoelCT) — Sun, 22 Nov 2015 23:16:00 +0000

Starman and Scott are taking a hot dog break alongside a dirtbike track, where Starman reveals he's been reading up on photography and wants to try putting the cover profession of Paul Forrester to some use. He ultimately ends up with a face and camera full of dirt when he gets too close to the track, but when he spots a rider who wiped out with a broken arm who's about to be hit by a truck, Starman uses his orb to lift the boy to safety. The rider notices, though, and spots Starman as the man drags Scott away and they hit the road.
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Starman, episode 2 "Like Father, Like Son"

noreply@blogger.com (NoelCT) — Mon, 09 Nov 2015 01:05:00 +0000

Scott vows to never pass a hitchhiker again as he and Starman continue to unsuccessfully thumb for a ride. Scott is still bitter and unwilling to connect with Starman, and as soon as they follow a lead on his mother, Jenny, to a mountain lodge, Scott wants nothing more to do with his father. Ducking off the road to avoid a police traffic stop, Starman decides to put the $600+ in cash Liz gave him to use in buying a car. As they arrive at a used lot, Scott cautions Starman about the dishonesty of dealers and the importance of haggling. After shenanigans, they pull out with a car.
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Starman, episode 1 "The Return"

noreply@blogger.com (NoelCT) — Mon, 02 Nov 2015 01:15:00 +0000

In Chicago, photographer Paul Forrester is awoken after a night with a beautiful model by his editor, Liz Baynes, bursting into his hotel to tell him he's going to miss his flight to Nicaragua. These two have a complicated relationship, having once been lovers, but now being combative business partners as she lays into him over his plans to swing by the erupting Mount Hawthorne first to snatch some pics before leaving the country. He swipes some cash from her purse, ducks a punch (a routine gesture to them now), and rushes out the door. Sure enough, he arrives at the volcano and the helicopter he hired gets caught in a plume.
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Starman - The Movie

noreply@blogger.com (NoelCT) — Sat, 24 Oct 2015 22:45:00 +0000

Noel

For those who don't know, I've been hosting a podcast for a while called Masters of Carpentry, in which myself, my co-hosts Alexander & Julia Adrock, and occasional guests, have been working through the entire filmography of writer/director/composer John Carpenter. There was some question about how I wanted to cover the television series Starman, a followup to his classic film, and since it met most of the criteria we were looking for here (short-lived: check! genre piece: check! available on DVD: bonus!) Tony was kind enough to agree to explore it with me here. This isn't so much us taking a break from the status quo so we can tie into something else as it is a very natural crossover, and a way to kill one project with two blogs instead of doubling everything up on both. After all, this would have been on our to do list regardless (though maybe not until after The Phoenix and The Powers of Matthew Star).
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Vytor: The Starfire Champion, Final Thoughts and the Film Cut

noreply@blogger.com (NoelCT) — Sat, 17 Oct 2015 18:20:00 +0000

Tony

Okay, dear readers, I'm going to give you a choice when it comes to my final thoughts on Vytor: The Starfire Champion. Short version or long version.

Short version:

This show blows.

Long version:
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Vytor: The Starfire Champion, episode 4 "Wilderland"

noreply@blogger.com (NoelCT) — Mon, 12 Oct 2015 02:19:00 +0000

While walking about his homeland, Vytor suddenly runs into an invisible wall. Turning, he finds himself sealed in on all sides in an invisible cell. The cell is hoisted into the air by Dreadlock, who gloats that even the power of Starfire can't break through a barrier created by the Saturn Orb. He drags the cell back to Myzor's citadel.
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Vytor: The Starfire Champion, episode 3 "The Spirit Tree"

noreply@blogger.com (NoelCT) — Mon, 05 Oct 2015 00:44:00 +0000

Myzor bitterly watches on his monitor as the Terrons throw their centennial Spirit Tree celebration. The Spirit Tree, a massive, beautifully gnarled feature just outside their town, is a symbol of peace which filters the local drinking water and gives everyone a feeling of tranquility which keeps them from becoming warlike. Every 100 years, it releases a seed into the wind which will fly off to another land and bless it with a Spirit Tree of their own.
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Vytor: The Starfire Champion, episode 2 "Aerion"

noreply@blogger.com (NoelCT) — Mon, 21 Sep 2015 00:13:00 +0000

In Terron, Skyla delights as she watches Vytor boast during a practice duel only to be repeatedly knocked down by the elder Eldor. As they all talk of the Starfire Ring, Skyla proposes taking Vytor to her homeland of Aerion so her father, King Artair, can be informed of new developments and that the son of King Trion has been found alive. Vytor isn't keen on flying off to a sky-bound city, but Eldor orders him into it.
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Vytor: The Starfire Champion, episode 1 "The Starfire Legacy"

noreply@blogger.com (NoelCT) — Mon, 14 Sep 2015 00:10:00 +0000

In his volcanic castle, the dreaded and mohawk-plumed lord Myzor destroys a robot underling who failed to uncover the location of the Starfire Ring, and promises the same fate will befall the bullish Dreadlock if he doesn't fare better.

Swooping down from the flying city of Aereon in her sentient airship Windchaser, Princess Skyla is eager to explore the fabled lands below and beams as she approaches an island. Windchaser isn't quite so eager, warning her about "savages" and how this is forbidden by her father, King Altair.
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Bubsy "What Could Possibly Go Wrong?" - A One and Done Special

noreply@blogger.com (NoelCT) — Sat, 29 Aug 2015 20:52:00 +0000

The Game

Julie

Noel originally asked me to write a piece about my experiences playing the Bubsy series, but I think its very hard to do so with such an oddly infamous franchise without discussing the character itself.
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Final Thoughts on Cybersix

noreply@blogger.com (NoelCT) — Sun, 23 Aug 2015 22:51:00 +0000

Tony

There's been several shows we've reviewed here over the last four plus years that I'd never watched before, but in most cases, I at least had a passing familiarity with them. Most of these shows had been from the 80s or early 90s, and the bulk of them were cut from the same cloth as the shows I watched growing up. But here we had something that I'd never even heard of before. Something adapted from an obscure foreign comic in an unique anime style with no familiar writers or voice talent. In short, I went in blind, and with nothing to cling onto.
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Cybersix, pitch pilot

noreply@blogger.com (NoelCT) — Sat, 22 Aug 2015 23:38:00 +0000

Noel

Holding off on Final Thoughts for one more day, as I suddenly remember this bonus tucked away on the DVD set. Produced by TMS Entertainment and NOA Production, this is a three-and-a-half minute proof of concept short, mostly to show off animation, characters, general feel and action. A lot of what's in here did make it into the finished show, but there's a few interesting elements which didn't.

It starts off pretty much like the opening title sequence, where most of this animation will be used, albeit without the sweeping theme song. Cyber is being chased along rooftops by Fixed Ideas, intercut with creatures swirling around in tubes. Lots of action shots, with the fight from the credits where Cyber is literally jumping from one Fixed Idea to another as she kicks them down going on much longer. It's actually quite brutal at times.

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Cybersix comic, volume 1, part 2

noreply@blogger.com (NoelCT) — Sun, 16 Aug 2015 20:42:00 +0000

Noel

As with the last half, be warned that the comic I'm looking at here is very not family friendly, with copious amounts of nudity, sex, sexual violence, and violence. Still gonna keep my descriptions to our usual PG-13 standards, but be aware if any of the above doesn't sit well with you.

This is also where we reach the point where I had to start translating material on my own. Again, I've never studied French and am relying on Google for the heavy lifting, so if anything I describe doesn't perfectly line up with what was actually written, that's entirely on me.

Chapter 9

Desperate for another Sustenance fix, Cybersix hunts the rooftops, finding and setting in on a Techno. Realizing he was keeping watch for something, she sees dozens of Fixed Ideas scouring the alleys until they corral a fellow Techno who's trying to escape from them. Cyber wonders if one among that line has finally gone "disobedient" like the Cybers before it, and rescues the Techno, but not before he's knocked out by a bullet graze. Needing somewhere to secure him while digging up more info, she drops him with Lucas, who's always eager to help.
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Cybersix comic, volume 1, part 1

noreply@blogger.com (NoelCT) — Sat, 15 Aug 2015 19:27:00 +0000

Noel

Recapping a bit of history from our opening piece, Cybersix was originally published as a weekly 12-page comic strip in the Italian magazine Skorpio for two years from 1992 through 1994. It was then released, with additional original stories, as a series of 45 96-page graphic novels, which are most widely available through a series of 12 omnibuses published in French. Unfortunately, the page numbers don't entirely add up, so I don't think those 12 volumes contain the entirety of the series. Have no confirmation of this, though. You never know when Wikipedia has some info wrong. It does look like they may have compressed and redrawn chunks in later years, but I'm not sure.

Those 12 French volumes are what I have. The series has never officially been released in English (nor in Japanese, which is again surprising given the production of the cartoon), which may tie to the creators having bitterly attempted to sue James Cameron's Dark Angel for plagiarism. Only half of Volume 1 has been translated by fans and has been floating around for a while. For the purposes of this review, I completed my own rudimentary translation of the volume. I am not fluent in French, so Google Translate was used. The dialogue is very simple and brisk, so well over 90% translated beautifully, with just a few bits where I had to kind of wiggle around figuring out what was specifically being said.
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Cybersix, episode 13 "The Final Confrontation"

noreply@blogger.com (NoelCT) — Mon, 10 Aug 2015 00:28:00 +0000

Out at sea, a fishing boat suddenly runs aground on a fog-shrouded island. They're even more shocked when the island opens an eye and sprouts massive tentacles, smashing their ship before moving on.

In his mansion, José is again berated by Von Reichter, who's had enough and orders his boy to join him in the Fortress, an observatory/lab on a distant bay point overlooking the town. José's peeved, but packs all his Fixed Ideas in trucks and drives them out, never noticing that Data-7 is tagging along to see where they're going. José is greeted by Von Reichter in person, in a lab filled with tubes containing new creations he'll one day unleash. But first, using a password José is quick to sneak a glance at, Von Reichter calls up the plans for the Isle of Doom, the floating mass taking out every ship it passes as it heads into Meridiana's Bay. From there, it'll climb onto the city proper where it will explode, vaporizing the entire populace, including Cybersix, while also making a statement to the world that Von Reichter is a force to be reckoned with. José is stunned that all the hard work he spent taking over the city will be for naught, and doesn't take much comfort in Von Reichter's promise they can start again on a global scale.
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Cybersix, episode 12 "Daylight Devil"

noreply@blogger.com (NoelCT) — Sun, 02 Aug 2015 23:01:00 +0000

Cybersix and Data-7 are being chased through the city at night by Griselda, a new creation of Von Richter, who not only has equal fighting abilities, but a gauntlet which fires a spear on a line, and the ability to turn invisible. She has Cybersix completely on the ropes until a gaggle of Fixed Ideas with a rocket launcher bungle things up. Everyone retreats from the fight, bruised and bitter.
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Cybersix, episode 11 "The Greatest Show in Meridiana"

noreply@blogger.com (NoelCT) — Sun, 26 Jul 2015 23:58:00 +0000

In his mansion lab, José is completing construction of a giant robot octopus which still has a few bugs to work out. He gets a call from his father, Von Reichter, who holds the boy to his promise that this time everything will go according to plan. As such, he sends the boy a pack of Fixed Idea dogs who lead him into the sewers to Data-7's hideaway where the panther is captured with the help of the robot octopus as well as a giant two-headed robot snake.
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Cybersix, episode 10 "Full Moon Fascination"

noreply@blogger.com (NoelCT) — Mon, 20 Jul 2015 03:06:00 +0000

A scared, bespectacled man runs down the street at night. Clutching claw marks on his shoulder, he collapses and transformers into a werewolf. He's bestial, out of control, but another werewolf on a rooftop, shaped like a woman and with long, flowing red hair, speaks of her excitement that she can make others like her.

Lucas is chasing papers in the wind when the bestial werewolf sets on him, raking claws across his shoulder. Cybersix swoops in, taking the creature down until it turns back into the scared man, who runs away. Cybersix is concerned about Lucas' shoulder but dashes off when he says he'll be okay.
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Cybersix, episode 9 "The Eye"

noreply@blogger.com (NoelCT) — Sun, 12 Jul 2015 23:47:00 +0000

A Techno arrives at the mansion with a gift for José: a floating eyeball with the power to hypnotize people into a stunned trance. The boy - quickly knocked out of his own trance - is tasked by Von Reichter with seeing what the creature is capable of before it's put into wide use. The boy takes it around town, first testing it on isolated people - including Lori and her gang - then decides to shoot bigger, taking the eye through City Hall, hypnotizing everyone within and claiming the mayor's office for his own. Police quickly surround the building, but they're stunned into trances as well. Additionally, every time the eye stuns someone, it absorbs some form of energy from them, leading the eye to start growing bigger and bigger. And when threatened, it can fire a powerful beam, which it uses now as it sends police cars up in balls of flame. José is shocked by this, but quickly delighted. Even when he gets a call from Von Reichter telling him he's gone too far and to return the eye, José decides to press on.
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